Ancient Namibian Freeway overlays Ancient Agriculture System

The lines were not there in 2011, but show up in 2012.

https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/

 

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Here's the same view of Miami, Florida in the 2017 version: https://www.google.com/maps/@25.681549,-80.2008003,29121m/data=!3m1!1e3 showing they've fixed the Google-Earth line-artifact problem introduced in 2012.

The Namibia Ancient Roadway is so extensive that it includes areas further south that is wetter. Here is a view where trees have managed to take root in the middle of the roadway:
https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8776711,18.0068373,910m/data=!3m1!1e3

if you proceed further south along that same road where the trees are growing in the middle, you come to this section where it is completely buried under flood sediment:
https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8912415,18.0072547,458m/data=!3m1!1e3

I still can't understand why some people think these are modern-made roads. They are clearly very very old. True, vehicles do still use some portions of a few of them, and others have animal/people walking trails showing on them, but they are generally not used nowadays as they were in former times (except where modern state action has, in a few locations, built new highways atop/alongside the ancient highways).

 

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Here's another section buried by sediment. https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8890592,17.9982927,456m/data=!3m1!1e3
What's interesting is that the edges of the roadway have thicker vegetation lining the edges, making the edges very distinct. We see that with modern-made roads, too. Along the edges of the shoulders, the grasses grow thicker, the bushes grow thicker, etc., giving an edging effect. That is because the plants along that edge are able to draw water from underneath the roadway where there is no root-competition from plants (as they are not growing in the roadway itself), and hence there are more-plants/thicker-plants along the edges of both modern roads, as well as ancient roads as in this particular link. Here is a link to the broader perspective for this buried section: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8890592,17.9982927,3650m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8890592,17.9982927,7299m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

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Here's where some people have established a small cluster of buildings. Likely some of the animal-husbandry people of the local area. It appears they use the lower road as their access road. https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8713698,17.964647,227m/data=!3m1!1e3 Same view from further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8713698,17.964647,1818m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view from still further out, now showing the M75 state highway built atop/alongside one of the ancient roads. https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8713698,17.964647,7269m/data=!3m1!1e3

another cluster of homes, one of them built in the middle of the ancient road: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0714834,17.8702168,227m/data=!3m1!1e3 same location but from further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0714834,17.8702168,1818m/data=!3m1!1e3 and still further out, now showing modern agriculture (green circular irrigation) to the south, as well as other state highways built atop/alongside the ancient roadways: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0714834,17.8702168,14554m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Here's what appears to be remnants of an ancient structure: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0664907,17.5880066,228m/data=!3m1!1e3 same view, further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0664907,17.5880066,911m/data=!3m1!1e3 same view, still further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0664907,17.5880066,7272m/data=!3m1!1e3

Here's what appears to be an ancient field rectangular array underneath a modern circular-rotating-sprinkler field: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.1371159,17.7789573,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view, further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.1371159,17.7789573,1820m/data=!3m1!1e3 same view, still further out to show location: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.1371159,17.7789573,14555m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

split highway with trees growing in the median, leading to a modern small farm complex: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.1284044,17.3284117,914m/data=!3m1!1e3 same view from further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.1284044,17.3284117,3654m/data=!3m1!1e3 same view still further out to show location: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.1284044,17.3284117,14626m/data=!3m1!1e3

judging from the 100s of thousands of miles of these straight-line roads throughout this region of Namibia, on relatively flat ground, this area could very well have been the bread-basket of the world in ancient times (ice-age era, for which we've formerly had little information).

 

Further North-East, on the Namibia/Botswana border, here's a section of split freeway (which the border parallels) where it was washed away by floodwater, which also apparently leaves standing water in the area where it was washed away. Consequently, local people more recently now have bypassed the standing water area, reconnecting to the freeway at various points: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.7947422,20.9967149,2178m/data=!3m1!1e3
another bypassed section further north: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.7797491,20.9967171,1089m/data=!3m1!1e3
another bypasased section to the north: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.6771241,21.0003121,2184m/data=!3m1!1e3
still further north along the border freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.6177267,20.9996525,910m/data=!3m1!1e3
blow-up of the above t-intersection; note the meandering tire-tracks along the east-direction freeway where modern 'traffic' uses the old freeway as a dirt road: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.6177267,20.9996525,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north along the border, another t-intersection of a smaller freeway joining a bigger one: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.546979,21.0068597,1820m/data=!3m1!1e3
a local settlement is now adjacent thereto, with a road leading away from it to the south-east: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.5482335,21.0002579,228m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north, another section showing frequent flooding; now with very visible wheeled-tracks on the dirt road that overlays the freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.4517059,20.9990114,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north; house built on top of freeway, modern dirt road bypasses around: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.2269682,20.999759,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north, another pesky squatter on the freeway, with dirt road bypassing around: https://www.google.com/maps/@-19.0456478,20.9992825,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north, river crossing by Nhoma/Xaudum 'River': https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.9330338,20.9988655,455m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north, house on freeway at t-intersection: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8694936,21.0001851,454m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north, another house on freeway at t-intersection: http://www.sciforums.com/threads/an...lays-ancient-agriculture-system.158967/page-2
further north, Ncamasere 'River' crossing: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.4951991,20.9989923,455m/data=!3m1!1e3
further north, sharp right: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.3180905,21.0003006,456m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, bend: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.3178312,21.4535885,455m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, showing bypass around flood-prone section: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2704245,21.7062585,229m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, freeway completely obliterated by river, except some edges still showing outline of freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2574568,21.7696198,536m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, freeway re-emerges from river gorge: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2539492,21.7877955,535m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, house on freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.1653424,22.2562532,457m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, another house on freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.1330731,22.4258527,455m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, freeway covered by silt: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0271091,22.9660913,454m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, house of freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0174493,23.0178822,454m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, bend to due-east: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0012011,23.0984889,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
further east, end of road at river: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0008317,23.2844277,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view from higher up: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0008317,23.2844277,1819m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view from higher up, showing 'landing-strip' to the northeast: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0008317,23.2844277,7272m/data=!3m1!1e3
'landing strip' https://www.google.com/maps/@-17.9837349,23.3088515,1519m/data=!3m1!1e3
blow-up of edge of strip showing freeway crossing: https://www.google.com/maps/@-17.9877712,23.3144722,228m/data=!3m1!1e3
'landing strip' stops at old river edge: https://www.google.com/maps/@-17.9795947,23.3029369,461m/data=!3m1!1e3 (this might have served as a dock?)
back to cubango river (west); traces of freeway visible where the border parallels the freeway: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2562479,21.7741267,930m/data=!3m1!1e3
one has to wonder how long ago this freeway went into neglect. numerous old river channels completely cut through it, as well as the modern river channel. was there once a bridge over the old channel it crossed? could one find traces of a culvert-wall that protected a bridge?
close-up of traces of freeway in river-bottom as the border follows parallel to it: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2561281,21.7787857,227m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view, further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2561281,21.7787857,910m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view further out, showing freeway on both sides of river: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2561281,21.7787857,1818m/data=!3m1!1e3
same view still further out to show general location: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2561281,21.7787857,14547m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

To summarize this thread, we've discovered an ancient freeway/highway system that extends for hundreds of miles in each direction, via myself and Google Earth. It's not been written about before. I have a few quick views of 'smoking guns' showing the ancient nature of the system. This road-system is out in the 'middle of nowhere' (no major cities or farmland) for the most part, except along river edges, and even then sparsely populated nowadays.




Below is the major 'smoking gun' showing the freeway almost completely buried by silt in a river-bottom, with numerous river channels in the river-bottom showing the freeway completely erased.

In this view at that major river one can see the old freeway, on the left and on the right, above the river-bottom. The green river-bottom is in the middle, with the freeway not showing in the river-bottom where it is buried/erased. The national border (Botswana/Namibia) parallels the freeway, which is shown on Google-Earth views, so makes finding the freeway outline easy: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2578709,21.7788304,1850m/data=!3m1!1e3 A modern-day highway sits atop a portion of the western sector of the ancient freeway, but not atop the eastern sector. The national border was apparently designed to be parallel to this old road, which goes due east/west for the most part.

In these views below, one is a little closer in, now showing outline of the freeway in the river-bottom.

1) This first closer view is the western section of the bottom: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2579277,21.7697796,462m/data=!3m1!1e3

2) This second closer view is the middle section of the bottom: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2563001,21.7782022,462m/data=!3m1!1e3

3) This third closer view is the eastern section of the bottom: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2554348,21.7833839,462m/data=!3m1!1e3

As one should note, wherever there is blue water (river) the freeway is washed away. The green river-bottom, however, still shows traces of the durable freeway edges which leaves a disturbance in the silting-over process whenever the river floods the bottom.


One should wonder how long ago the river started erasing evidence of the freeway where the freeway was crossing the river bottom. One should also wonder if there were an ancient bridge crossing the river, or merely a culvert system. There had to have been something along those lines to allow the river to pass without continuously flowing over the freeway. The culvert head-wall foundations might still exist, but buried. It would appear the freeway edges are sufficiently durable to have survived being flooded frequently by the river, whenever it flooded the river-bottom plain.

To give perspective, this is a closest view in the river-bottom showing clear delineation of the freeway edges: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2562865,21.7791074,230m/data=!3m1!1e3

The national border runs exactly parallel to the old freeway (which is still in use in some parts of the north; and apparently what was used to delineate the borders between those two countries).

This is a much further away view from the same location: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.2562865,21.7791074,7357m/data=!3m1!1e3

One should note the present-day D3403 highway sits atop a portion of the old freeway, and therefore also runs parallel to the border. On the eastern side of the river, the newer highway does not continue (no bridge to get to it), but the ancient freeway is still clearly visible. This ancient freeway runs eastward quite a ways where it appears to dead-end at an old, filled-in canal that leads to the Kwando River, which also serves nowadays as the border between Namibia and Botswana, as per this view: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0012264,23.2851248,1822m/data=!3m1!1e3

One should note that on this expanded view of the dead-end of the freeway is an old, filled-in canal leading to the old river edge: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.0017178,23.2845535,228m/data=!3m1!1e3 It actually appears that the old freeway formerly ran straight due east to the canal and dead-ended at the canal; then later the ancient freeway was modified and curved southwards, running southward adjacent by the end of the canal. I suspect that one would find old docking material at both those locations, where goods were loaded/unloaded from the land vehicles of that era (likely oxen-carts).

Here's a view of the eastern edge of the old freeway shortly after it crosses the river detailed above, ending at the river where the freeway is washed away. There is no highway sitting atop it like on the western sector: https://www.google.com/maps/ and @-18.2543785,21.789660 5,460m/data=!3m1!1e3 This runs due east, and the modern border between Namibia and Botswana sits atop the northern edge of the ancient freeway, as per Google Map.

These views are 'smoking guns' as to the antiquity of that freeway. It shows the freeway covered with silt in a river-bottom. It shows the freeway washed-away in all of the old river-bottom river channels. It shows the freeway does not have a modern roadway sitting atop on the eastern sector, compared to the western sector. And, at the eastern sector, the ancient freeway terminates at the far east at an old canal, now mostly filled-in, that links to the river. That ancient freeway actually shows that at two locations, one running straight east to the canal, and an apparently later modification of the ancient freeway curving south and running past the very far edge of the canal where the canal was extended to give an apparently better drop-off point for goods/produce.

At the western edge of this ancient freeway, it turns 90 degrees due south (https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.3183841,20.9993023,454m/data=!3m1!1e3), and runs the length of the modern border between Namibia and Botswana. This freeway has been used as the modern-day demarcation between Botswana and Namibia. At that turn, one will note a house sitting atop the freeway, as that portion of the freeway is not used nowadays. There are lots of other places along the freeway where houses now sit, usually with a small dirt bypass road to allow local traffic to continue down the old freeway.

That region further south was formerly productive farm-land, as per this view of the roadwork there: https://www.google.com/maps/@-22.7716603,20.8685265,7272m/data=!3m1!1e3 That view also shows a freeway of double-roads at a T-intersection, with the intersection now being used for animal-husbandry as a gathering corral, as per this view: https://www.google.com/maps/@-22.776495,20.8602671,227m/data=!3m1!1e3

That region of former farm-land sits in modern-day Botswana, to the east of the main ancient freeway, seen here, where it divides Botswana from Namibia. https://www.google.com/maps/@-22.8095982,19.9985584,454m/data=!3m1!1e3 In this view, one can tell that the ancient freeway (about 50 meters wide) has a hard base that does not allow plants to grow. Instead, plants line the edges (as on modern freeways too) as plants at the edge can obtain water from both directions, both from under the freeway where there are no other plants in competition taking the water, and from outside the freeway; which makes for better plant-growing ability at the very edge of a hard-packed roadway where plants can't grow on the roadway, but can grow on the neighboring dirt. That whole region shows other such ancient roads all throughout, though the one featured in this particular post is the one that runs from south to north, then turns east at 90 degrees in the north, and serves as the border between those two countries.

 

Further to the south or west are other oddities.

Here's an approximately 4-lane highway, way out in the middle of 'nowhere' nowadays (no cities or farmland nearby). It has developed low-spots in certain areas, that develop standing water at times, causing local traffic that still uses the old highway to drive around the wet spots. Here is one such wet-spot: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.3240542,24.0825276,227m/data=!3m1!1e3 One should see by the width of the by-pass (as well as by vehicle tracking on the old highway) that the highway was about 4 vehicles in width (oxen wagon or modern car are about the same width).

Here's another wet-spot bypass from nearby: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.3206026,24.0732987,228m/data=!3m1!1e3 This is another view a little further out: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.3206026,24.0732987,456m/data=!3m1!1e3 There are lots of animal paths around those water-holes.

Further west it's a little wetter, and the roads are more obliterated: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8500956,18.0054085,456m/data=!3m1!1e3

Here, because it is wetter, trees are growing in the road: https://www.google.com/maps/@-18.8515664,17.998071,227m/data=!3m1!1e3


Anyway, these old roads go for hundreds of miles east/west, and north/south, not just in Namibia but Botswana as well, with hundreds of them. Some are narrow 2-lane, some 4-lanes wide, some double or triple-4-lane-wide. They are all out in the middle of very dry scrub, with no cities or farming, just some light animal husbandry grazing. This is very flat land, though, so easy to make roads. About 10% of them appear to still have some type of local traffic, both animal/pedestrian, as well as wheeled vehicles.


Geologically, the land has limestone substrate (very ancient sea bottom, now raised above the sea but still very flat), and easily develops sink-holes. The Victoria Falls are just somewhat to the east. The river where the freeway was washed away flows towards Victoria Falls.


All of this road-grid pattern sits atop what had formerly been productive farmland when the climate was wet. As the climate dried, the land/roads apparently fell into dis-use, and the area could no longer support what was apparently an immense population. This was likely at the end of the last Ice-Age (circa 10,000 BC), when further north the Sahara region turned from lush green river-bottoms into what are now sand-blown deserts.


I'm expecting a nearby University will soon become interested in investigating this further, so that we might see more details as to age, etc.


Walter L. Wagner